Steam OS!

I haven't scrolled down so excuse me if I'm falling into repetition.

Let me first say: Amen. A brilliant move. Where 'the other two' have left a gap for gamers. iOS has always been the worst gaming platform, and Windows has been advertising every OS they brought out since XP as 'optimized for gaming'. Cool marketing terms, with no to minimal noticeable features that actually prove this theory.

Quoting:

“In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we’re now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level. Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases.”

The latter may be true yet it should not be praised before seeing positive input from developers. But bear with me here, with the mainstream OSs being mediocre at best for gaming, will this become the major OS for all (PC) gamers out there? It certainly has peaked my interest, and with PC gamers being a fair percentage of the consumer market is Valve going to surpass even crApple in market share?

Eh.

I imagine it will catch on about as well as ChromeOS.

So, they are making another Android, linux-like OS with a lot of proprietary parts? Meh, while that approach is the only working one that will ever make gaming possible on linux, it won't be 'linux' various fanatics claim is best OS. It will be just another Android or Mac OS, system that can run some simple linux code and is based on linux kernel while being incompatible with pure linux distributions, IMO.

If this can play GTA 1 correctly, I'll consider getting it. Maybe!

Windows works fine. Not excellent by any means, just good enough. Linux doesn't. At least not for games. They wouldn't only have to fix that, but they would need to make a much more user friendly OS than any of the current distros if they plan to make it a big thing.

Honestly, I couldn't care less. Windows works just fine. Valve can't even keep steam bug free, but yet somehow they think they'll be able to manage an OS. I doubt I'll even try it out in the near future. Good for those that liked the news though, I suppose.

I'll be disappointed if SteamOS doesn't boot up with this each time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7qMEZx7scw

All in all, an amazing announcement. I wonder if I could even use my netbook with Ubuntu with a dual boot SteamOS to stream games from my main rig.

I really like the idea of Streaming, other than that, i see not much of an advantage. Windows works well, and considering there are still a good amount of bugs and missing features in Steam itself, i don't think i'd really make use of it.

We'll see, hopefully they manage to pull it off well enough, i am a bit worried about the future regarding compatability, will they push games (maybe valve exclusive) to only run with SteamOS? If that's the case, that'd be quite the negative point against it.

I'm probably the only person who doesn't like this.
Sounds like OnLive + Linux.

My dick is diamonds.

I don't see the point of this. Windows does everything I want my PC to do and it is already hooked up to my TV.

Instead of pulling a Google, I wish Valve just focused on what Steam was meant for - Games. I don't want music, movies, or software in my Steam. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I wish they improved the current Steam UI - forum sucks, can't ever find anything there; switching between tabs takes forever; no multi-monitor support for viewing multiple tabs simultaneously; etc.

No thanks, Valve.

Much better conclusion than a SteamBox.

So...is SteamOS just for streaming games...or is there more to it?

Some rumors floating around from a possible insider source. Of course it could all be an elaborate ruse, it wasn't exactly posted on the most credible of websites. here

Considering the Steam client barely works for me without its own operating system, I'm skeptical on how good this will be.

Then again, Valve. I suppose I'll wait and see.

OS for TV? Thx, but no. If i need large screen - i connect my PC with TV via HDMI

Every one is so exited about the streaming... Really? You can stream your PC to any other computer (PC, Mac and linux) for the past couple of years... You can even stream it to your smartphone and do a ghetto project shield.....

SteamOS will only be good for people who play indie linux games... Games for linux have low frame rates compared to the windows versions, valve and devs will have to work very hard to solve this. The only other good thing is if most of steams games can be ported to linux right and game devs start to develop games natively for linux.

As somebody who's been championing this idea (or ideas like it) for 20 years, let me try and find some naysayers and address them. I don't know any more about Steam OS than any of you. I may know less about it some of you. I probably found out after most of you (I got up four hours after it announced). But I can speak as to why this is important to PC gamers.

The #1 thing is Microsoft is gonna push us out eventually. Can't stop 'em. Windows 8 was meant to appeal to the iOS herd. Touch screen computing may even be the future for office and media machines. It's great for artists. But for gamers? We all feel the cold shoulder from Touch and Metro and iOS and all that we call trash. It's not for gamers. Never was meant to be. Windows 9 might be better, but eventually, Windows is going to be absolutely more hostile to gaming than you think Linux is now. If we wait until then, we're screwed. There needs to be a push to Linux sooner than later, so that when all y'all holdouts finally admit you have to switch, there will be enough momentum that you can.

Imagine a train, if you will. The train is on Microsoft's tracks right now. Ahead, the bridge is out. The speed of the train is unknown. You're scared, so you're hiding in the caboose (rear car). Some of us are jumping over to tracks that go on forever. We don't need all of you. If enough of you jump, the train that is gaming will move regardless if anyone's left in the caboose or not. Momentum. If we all wait, it will be too late when we reach the bridge. If we all jump now, we all take a risk that ends up paying off. But Valve knows only a few people will jump at first. They have to go first and they have to show us it's safe.

Streaming can be done now. How? This is not common knowledge and it's a pain in the... um caboose (not sure SG's swearing policy)... to set up. Most people don't mess with it. This is only even viable if you have two computers. Most folks don't. If you have two computers, and you can do it now, bully for you. For the rest of us, it'll be easy to do. And I'm not even sure what's up with all this streaming stuff anyway. That's not an aspect with Steam OS I'm familiar with.

I can just use HDMI! You and me both. My PC is right next to my TV. I do this all the time. What this overlooks is, your PC is still running Windows, and Windows is the problem. See the #1 thing above.

Steam app sucks in Windows. Yes it does, and that doesn't matter. The Steam client can suck in Steam OS for all I care, and all you should care, as long as the games work. The client will probably work better on an OS that Valve can get under the hood of anyway.

Baa! Baa! Baa! What's that? Oh, let me translate. "Windows is just fine." Wait, what? No it's not. Go back to the iPhone 5S line. See the #1 thing again.

Linux has no gaming support. Yes, it does. What it doesn't have is AAA developers like Bethesda targeting it. Instead, they tie their games to proprietary, non-free libraries so they can only ever work on Windows. Do they gain anything for this? Not really. Maybe it works a little better in Windows, they don't have to do as much. Not sure on that. But gaming on Linux is 100% viable, if a game is targeted to it. Games can be ported after the fact as well. When it can play That One Game (for me, it's Skyrim), you'll be thinking more about how you can make it work and less about why you won't.

Android/OUYA. No it isn't. Android is a fork of Linux. They aren't compatible with one another's apps. OUYA uses Android. Nvidia Shield uses Android. Android is okay for phones and tablets, but it isn't what we're talking about. Not at all. Android has nothing to do with Steam OS.

Chrome OS. Chrome OS is outdated. The idea of an OS that is just Chrome is stupid. Windows can run Chrome. Linux can run Chrome and so can OS X. Hell, Android can run Chrome. There's no need to build a whole OS around it. That's just one of the missteps Google has made, like Buzz, Orkut, and Wave. You could just run Steam on Linux, too. And that's part of the point. Steam OS and Linux are one and the same as far as developers are concerned. Steam OS is just a more attractive name. Linux is kind of a stigma. Any game that works on Steam OS will work on Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, or whatever other Linux distro you happen to prefer. And I'm sure there will be instructions. It'll just be easier for Steam OS users because that's the point.

Whew. I'll try to get back tomorrow and look for replies. Keep it civil, etc.

I would wait and see how this would go. For now, I'm sticking to Windows 7 to make sure most, if not all, of my games work. Windows 8 is not practical enough for me.

I'm a little confused. What's the point to it? Can they guarantee every game that works on Windows will work just as well on their new OS, or do you need to run a Windows emulator? Either way, there's no reason to switch from Windows.

And the other thing: Steam has crashed on me three times today alone. I can't even remember the last time Windows crashed. I barely trust my games to Steam, there's no way in hell I'm trusting them with my entire computer what with their almost nonexistent support and their habit of blatantly ignoring bugs and releasing new features that introduce more bugs instead of fixing anything.

What really angers me in regards to ppl talking about GNU/Linux is that a lot of them expect to be running all their collection of software (made for windows) on it. I mean, come on, you didn't expect to run all Amiga games on PC or to run playstation games on xbox, why do people expect to run windows apps/games on Linux and disregard it when they learn that it's not possible? It's a different platform, it has it's own software and in some cases (big budget games being one) requires completely new software to be written. It's not about the games that were released in the past, it's about the games that are going to be released in the future, cause the majority those past ones is not going to get ported. Big companies make games as products, and after a few months they drop supporting them. Try running a win98 game on winxp - it most probably won't work without making a large effort of finding custom patches, hacking binaries, emulating stuff, etc...

TL;DR - most windows games won't be ever ported to GNU/Linux - get over it and stop bashing the OS because the companies don't care about their customers.

Just updated my Steam client, which always results in the "News" tab popping up, no mentioning of this. Even though all of this seems useless to me it kinda got me curious.
Isn't this supposed to be some kind of big event? Splitting the announcement up in three etc, yet I can't find any information about this anywhere unless I search for it in Google? It's not shown on the store front, it's not mentioned under news/updates/press releases etc? Just seems odd.

OS for TV? ROTFL. This is my OS for TV
And i have TV with DLNA.

Steam OS cause of Steambox.

"Downloadable soon. Free forever!
SteamOS will be available soon as a free download for users and as a freely licensable operating system for manufacturers. Stay tuned in the coming days for more information."

OK IM UP FOR THAT :D